TravelScholar

Any feedback on either of these two apartment communities, or their general locations?

Camden Palisades
3295 Casey Ave
Las Vegas, NV 89120

Oasis Gateway
6501 Vegas Dr
Las Vegas, NV 89108

Both are listed on a map here, and are known to accept large dogs:
http://www.camdenliving.com/internet...sear_vegas.htm

lvnvflyer

Well, I am familiar with the neighborhood of the one in the south (camden palisade). My b.i.l. and s.i.l live in a condo complex at Flamingo and Pecos, not far from there at all. I've passed this complex on Pecos a number of times. On the plus side, from what I recall, the community looks pretty new and well maintained. Pecos is a pretty major north south arterial, but less busy than some, like Eastern or Maryland Parkway, so traffic isn't too bad. I probably have to drive by it again later today, so I'll check to make sure that it is the one I remember. . On the down side, this is an older, somewhat rundown (but not slummy) area. There is a good market near there (the Sunflower Market, at Trop and Pecos), and you can shoot down Trop to take the 95, but the area generally is a bit older and a bit rundown, with kind of sadder strip centers and the like. I don't consider it a high crime area, although it wouldn't surprise me if there was a bit of property crime in the area (all those statistics are readily available on the LVPD web site); and a bit would depend on how long you intended to stay (it might be fine for a few months, but not so uplifting for a whole year). As to the other location, I'm less familiar with that area, but I will tell you that the traffic on the 95, particularly at the notorious Rainbow Curve, is bad, and that there is construction on the 95 which is schedule to continue for some time. I'd probably be inclined to look a little more and see if you can get a bit closer to the 215, perhaps. In any event, if I drive by Camden Palisades later, I'll certainly post more info.

lvnvflyer

Hi, I did pass by Camden Palisades yesterday and took a quick look; it's actually quite a large complex, with swimming pool, exercise area, etc., and I did see several large dogs being walked. One nice thing is that it is actually set back off of pecos a bit; you turn into a small access street that leads into the complex. That's a plus because Pecos is pretty busy, and the corner of Tropicana and Pecos is a big retail area; supermarkets, office depot, fast food places, etc., but the apartments, at least at first glance, seem a bit removed from that b/c of their location, so seem more "green". I also think you probably wouldn't get much traffic noise as a result. Otherwise, pretty much like most apts. here in the southwest...two stories, with an outside stair to the upper story, and patios/balconies depending which story you are on and covered parking (big plus in the summer). Good luck with your search!

ediddy

I live in Southern Highlands. When I moved in, there was nothing here. Now there is plenty of shopping including a brand new big box mall at Blue Diamond and I-15, couple of new restaurants, a vet office and a new dog park too.

To get to Henderson is pretty easy from here as it's right across the highway. There is a new bridge being built at Silverado Ranch over I-15 and that will make it even better. To get to Summerlin, now that 215 is a freeway all the way up, from here it's not bad, drive up Jones or Rainbow to 215 then take that to Summerlin. Yu'll be going against traffic in the morning going to Summerlin and against traffic coming back in the afternoon.

Another option 1/2 way is Rhodes Ranch. It is a guard gated golf community (I play there often) and it's very nice.

As far as apartments go...back when I was renting most complexes had special offers like 2 months free rent for a 12 month lease. If you think you'll need that long, make sure to ask for those specials.

DMark

Hmm...regarding:
Camden Palisades
3295 Casey Ave
Las Vegas, NV 89120

A friend of a friend was murdered there, walking home later in the evening. He was a nice guy, no drug dealer or anything - just walking home and hit hard on the back of the head and robbed and left to die on the path way. Granted, this could just as easily have happened in Beverly Hills, but the area at night is a bit dicey. One of my favorite bars is in that area, but I still wouldn't want to be walking around there at night.

I don't know about the other location.

I still maintain the best idea is to rent a budget suites for a few weeks or a month, get your bearings, check out neighborhoods by day AND by night, and do some price comparisons. Amazingly, some places that are much nicer, but a little further away, are far cheaper - and "farther away" is relative in Las Vegas - you have to have a car here, so no place is really all that far away in the grand scheme of things - depending of course on where you wind up working.

lvnvflyer

I'm sorry to hear about your friend. I tend to agree with you that I wouldn't want to be hanging around that general neighborhood too late at night, but I wouldn't have thought it was that dangerous. I also think you are right that if you go a bit further out into green valley or seven hills or anthem, there are similar communities that are likely safer.

Sunnyhere

I drove by this property, twice, this past week. Both times I drove by, was thinking about your post and was reminded that Camden properties always look to be well maintained. As I was driving by, I wasn't thinking that it was one of the specific properties you had mentioned, because I had it in my mind that you were looking SE. Anyway...This particular property certainly looked well maintained and given a choice, I'd prefer well maintained. I think a previous poster suggested renting a single family home, and I can echo those sentiments. Lots of Las Vegans have been snatching up single family homes, as investments, and that has been keeping the rents low. One of my friends rents his Southern Highlands homes for something like $1050 or $1100 per month, which seems a bargain, compared to apartments.

TravelScholar

Well, after a nightmare-ish trip on Northwest, I did a last minute quick trip to LAS this past Thursday and Friday. I had a look at Camden Palisades and Oasis Gateway. I intended to look at a few houses as options as well, but my flights got reshuffled, and I ended up in LAS at 2:45pm rather than 10:30am, with my return scheduled the next morning.

In any case, we're going to do a short-term lease at Oasis Gateway in the NW part of town. It's much closer to my work and seems like a better property by far in terms of it's condition, etc. Whilst there, we'll be searching for a home to move into once our lease is up.

Can anyone give me any insight into the "rent to own" thing that seems pretty widespread in Las Vegas? For those of us with high debt load (lots of student loans from the wife's medical school bills), is this a better option to start out? From the looks of things, $300-350K in LAS buys what about $100-125K will out here.

Anyway, we're moving out this coming weekend and should arrive in down on the 25th or 26th. Bye bye Indiana--Whoohoo!

DMark

If you intend to do a "rent to own", make sure you get everything in writing!
There have been lots of scams and misunderstandings. There are lots of variations - for instance, say the actual rent on the house is $1000 a month, you pay $1500 a month and the extra $500 per month is put in a seperate account and added however long it takes to put together a downpayment - then you take over the mortgage.

In theory, pretty simple - cut and dry - but in reality, lots of misunderstandings, unethical landlords cancelling the lease (and not returning money) for any number of dubious reasons. Sometimes even that downpayment isn't enough for a loan company to approve you, or the house is not worth the asking price, etc. etc.

Should you find someone serious about doing it, get a lawyer to create the documents and have it all done on the up and up, right off the bat. The cost of a lawyer writing up the agreement and handling the details will be worth it.

BTW - welcome to Las Vegas! Currently, it is freezing here, so dress warmly.

GDIW

DMark - You're talking to a man from Indiana. He knows what is cold and what is not! :-)

Tomorrow mid day the sun will be out in Nevada. Right now in Indiana we are having 30 degree temperatures or less and sleet. Actually no complaints for a January day.

woodway

Generally, rent-to-wn is going to cost you a lot more than buying directly. IMHO, you are better off taking that extra money you will be paying on rent-to-own and getting your debt paid down to the point you can qualify for a more traditional mortgage. Only caveat to this is if prices in LAS are still rising at a healthy clip, and you can lock in the price on your-rent-to-own up front, you could actually come out ahead on the rent-to-own option. Best bet is to spend a few bucks and talk to a financial planner about the options. AND, if you rent-to-own, spend the dollars on a real estate attorney to review your docs. It's money well spent.

Dr_wanderlust

we live in SH too. usually easy to get to the west side, green valley, and central valley.

kaukau

For my Vegan friends who are currently house-shopping, and may have been out of the country last week - MrpAlert! - I remembered that this article appeared in the LVRJ a week or so ago, and thought I'd bring it to your attention: http://www.lvrj.com/business/8146392.html

Sunnyhere

Buy low, sell high! Right? It's probably time to buy! In Boulder City, I've seen exactly what the article mentions, namely, that prices are now more closely resembling what sellers might hope to get, rather than what they's like to get or what they could once get!

Mrp Alert

Ironically, the same day you posted this, I put my home purchase plans on vacation for another 3 months for similar reasons. When you come back in August, I will *still* be an unwanted house guest somewhere